178 

• 562. 




Some Lessons Learned, 



Mercersbui-g Review Print, Lancaster, Pa. 



SOME LESSONS LEARNED 






•". 51: i'. 



SOME LESSONS LEARNED 



IN THE 



FIRST CENTURY OF OUR NATIONAL EXISTENCE.* 



BY LEWIS H. STEINER, FREDERICK, MD.i 



Among the festivals instituted by Moses, in accordance with the 
direct command of the Lord, was one involving the fiftieth year, 
which was to be signalized above all others by the proclamation of 
"liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 
Then the land was to I'est, and the citizens were to return to " the 
social order whjch God had first established in the state," and at 
the same time to be made to feel that all had alike a jiart in the 
covenant first made by Him with their forefathers. At the close 
of the solemn service of the day of atonement, when the high 
priest had completed the ceremonies — at the close of that great day 
of humiliation and fasting — the air throughout the laud was made 
to vibrate with the jubilant sounds of trumpets, and the national 
soul that had been bewailing its sins and shortcomings in i)laiutive 
minor strains broke forth in exultant shouts and loud thanksi^iv- 



*An address delivered in Lancaster, Pa., June 29, ISTo, before tlic Literary 
Societies of Franklin and Mar.shall College. 

1 Reprinted from the October Number of the Merccrsburg Review. 



4 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

ings. The year of jubilee was propbetic of that future jubilee, 
when the saints shall be forever freed from the degrading effects of 
sin, and thenceforth live in the freedom of the sons of God ; but the 
Jews hailed it with joy also on account of its immediate present 
benefits, in that it was the beginning of a new era in the national 
life, when the errors of the past having been corrected and atoned 
for, wrongs redressed, restoration of privileges to those from whom 
they had been wrested made, with spirits purified and strengthened, 
renewed courage and greater vigor, they might more perfectly per- 
form the duties imposed upon them by the God of Abraham. 

While no divine authority imposes the celebration of such a year 
of jubilee upon any other nation, yet mankind has always found 
benefit in carefully retrospecting its history at certain fixed intervals ; 
and deriving fresh courage and vigor from its successes honestly 
obtained in the past, has advanced to meet its future with greater 
courage and more confident hope. Such a period of national 
jubilee is now before this nation. It is about entering upon the 
hundredth year of its existence, and as the exultant sounds of the 
national centennial are ready to burst forth from all parts of the 
land, is it not fitting that our minds should be turned to a serious 
retrospect of the past and a diligent discussion of the prospects of 
the future ? There is much reason for jubilation, for devout 
thankfulness to Him who has brought us through trial and tribu- 
lation to our present condition, who has guided us safely through 
the Red Sea of war and blood and the perils of intestine disturb- 
ance. There is also much reason for earnest prayer that in the 
future our greatest glory should consist in the fear of God and in 
the love of righteousness. 

Recognizing the propriety of such a national jubilee, I do not 
hesitate to ask the attention of this audience, composed of the 
active members of the Literary Societies of a College, full of the en- 
thusiasm and ardor of youth, some of whom are now about to 
enter upon the active duties of life, and to commence a career of 
expected usefulness ; of learned graduates who have returned to 
the home of their Alma Mater with hearts full of love and grati- 
tude, and who are ready to address kindly words of encouragement 
to their younger brethren ; of grave and dignified Professors whose 
toilsome lives are devoted to the preparation of young minds for 



of Our National Existence. 5 

the serious problems ihey will hereafter meet in the world, of the 
representatives of the energy, enterprise and beauty of this thriv- 
ing city, I do not hesitate in such a presence to ask attention to a 
few thoughts upon " name lessons learned in the first century of 
our national existence.'" 

The elements which were gathered together from all parts of the 
globe to people and possess the territory now owned by the United 
States, and which under the assimilating power of the national 
germ were made actual living portions of the national organism, 
were of all possible varieties. They were induced to leave their 
homes by motives as widely different as their customs and languages, 
and yet from such a heterogeneous multitude was evolved a 
homogeneous life, with striking peculiarities distinguishing it from 
that of all other nations on the globe. No nation can rightfully 
claim to be the parent of the United States. Its life springs from 
a new germ divinely planted here and appropriating for its devel- 
opment whatever of energy, enterprise and virtue is possessed by 
those who are either by choice or birth enumerated among its citi- 
zens. Just as the animal system separates, in the process of diges- 
tion, from the food those substances that can be made available 
in the upbuilding and preservation of the body, making them by 
means of the vital power a portion of its living organism, so does 
a genuine national life separate from the host of those who may 
come under its influence such elements as may make it a full, living 
realization of the peculiarities of the germinal idea from which it 
springs. A new nation always springs from a Divine necessity, 
and not from any mere resolution or compact of men. A Brigham 
Young may secure an aggregation of fanatical followers under the 
banner of a quasi-religion, may invent customs and ceremonies, 
habits and modes of life, construct monstrous architectural enor- 
mities for the accommodation or amusement of his people, but he 
cannot create a nation. At best he is only able to keep the dis- 
similar elements together for awhile, until the palpable absurdity 
becomes apparent, and the travesty is too contemptible for continua- 
tion, when the process of disintegration — not of death, which can 
only take place where there has been life — becomes speedy and cer- 
tain. The chemist has learned the complex constituents of living 
organisms, but his knowledge does not fit him to undertake the 
construction of such an organism. However far he may push his 



6 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

knowledge of the material, he finds that there is back of that yet 
something beyond the grasp of his re-agents and the revealing 
powers of his microscope, which endows what he has discovered 
with the high attributes of life. Efforts have been made not only 
by Plato and More to construct ideal governments and ideal peo- 
ples, as those of Atlantis and Utopia, but time and again bold en- 
thusiasts have even attempted to realize simihir dreams in the 
founding of new nations, and the result has always been the same. 
The undertaking has been a failure. An aggregation of man with- 
out an organic oneness of life pervading it will never form a na- 
tion, can never attain a more dignified status than that of a sys- 
tematized mob, no matter how much care has been given to the 
elaboration of laws and regulations for its control and govern- 
ment. The experience of some of the colonies might be recounted 
in illustration of this. In some cases the colonists came here im- 
bued, not with the spirit of religious toleration, but filled with a 
longing for a government that would embrace only those who 
could intone shibboleth in their favorite key and with their pecu- 
liar accent; in others they started with a written constitution which 
could only have had a home and significance where a country had 
grown accustomed to the restrictions and limitations of aristocratic 
institutions. But the intolerance as well as the aristocratic con- 
stitution proved to be foreign to the national germ which was to 
mould the characters and lives of men in accordance with the Re- 
public, destined in the mysterious dispensation of Providence here 
to grow up and develop to wondrous maturity ; and hence they 
were excised as morbid excrescences from the body politic. 

Mulford* has well said: "The nation is an organic unity ; it 
is not an artificial fabric nor an abstract system, but it has a life 
which is definite and disparate, and has a development; therefore, 
it has not its origin in the individual nor the collective will of man ; 
but must proceed from a power which can determine the origin of 
organic being. The nation is an organic whole; but the whole, in 
which there is the conception of the parts, cannot be determined 
by the parts, since there must be the predetermination of the 
whole to which the parts belong; but the whole cannot deter- 
mine itself, and must, therefore, proceed from a power beyond 
itself " 



» The Nation, 55. 



of Our National Existence. 7 

1. This lesson, then, that as the nation is an organic unit, de- 
riving its origin from God Himself, and necessarily destined to 
exhibit a life peculiar to itself, I assert, has been taught us in the 
century now fast drawing to a close. Necessarily the lesson was 
not learned at once, but only after long struggles, fierce contentions 
with foreign powers, and bloody fraternal battles at home. At first 
preconceived notions clogged all the efforts of the early settlers. 
They looked with greater or less affection upon the governments 
they had left, and clung with more or less tenacity to the laws, 
usages and customs of their forefathers. The idea of separate and 
independent existence was only attained after severe trials in the 
school of adversity, when they found that at the hands of the parent 
government they could expect no sympathy so long as they remained 
in the condition of dependents. Slowly the thought of resistance 
dawned upon their minds, but as it became clearer and more dis- 
tinct, their arms became nerved to its vigorous assertion. Resis- 
tance implied rebellion and revolution, and to this end it came at 
last. A few farmers at Concord and Lexington, on the nineteenth 
of April, 1775, struck the first blow and kindled a flame that spread 
throughout the land, throwing a bright light upon the situation and 
making the necessity of separation, although it was to be obtained 
only through revolution, a stern fact which must be accepted by 
those who would be true to their manhood, true to their duty as 
citizens of a nation, and true to their God. In Philadelphia, on the 
Fourth of July, 1776, the idea of separation found its full expres- 
sion in that grand Declaration, which Americans hail as the great 
embodiment of their first recognition of the idea of an independent 
existence. 

Still even this utterance looked only to freedom from foreign con- 
trol, to a confederation of associated states against dangers from 
without. It was devoid of a suspicion that a higher, national and 
organic life was here to assert itself, different from anything else the 
world had ever known before, which was to develop into forms strange 
and novel, and through a vigorous youth, manifesting many of 
the errors of that stage of existence, finally to attain to a strength 
and maturity that would place it alongside of the older nations of 
the earth. The revolution followed, and the system of government 
by which it had been clogged and fettered was broken to pieces. 
Rebellion against Great Britain became a necessity to the full devel- 



8 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

opment of the idea of patriotism, and it ceased to be rebellion when 
"it expressed the conviction of the common people and the common 
will," and attained the higher dignity of a revolution. Says 
R,othe, as quoted by Mulford ;* " Regarded abstractly, revolutions 
are always moral anomalies ; but actually they are to be regarded 
as unavoidable, and therefore only apparent moral anomalies. For 
in human history, through the power of sin, the development cannot 
continue to proceed in a continuous sequence, but only through 
many throes and crises. The revolution, which is really the work 
of the nation itself, can only be regarded as such a crisis, which 
through external impediments becomes the condition of the main- 
tenance of the moral life of the nation : and such a revolution there- 
fore can only be justified when it rests on the living conviction of 
the people in its totality." Such a living conviction nerved the 
arms of our revolutionary forefathers, enabled them to withstand a 
long and exhausting war against the so-called mother country, 
and finally, under the blessing of God, to attain their independ- 
ence. 

But though the Declaration of Independence was based upon the 
asserted existence of a necessity for " one people to dissolve the 
political bonds which had connected them with another," still the 
oneness of the people was practically without recognition. Diffi- 
culties began to spring out of the Confederation, which menaced 
the prosperity that should have proceeded from independent life. 
Then was assembled the famous Constitutional Convention, in 
which deputies from the separate States were authorized to act for 
the whole people, and who formulated their conception of the nation 
as a unit in the simple but grand preamble to the Constitution they 
unanimously adopted on the seventeenth day of September, 1187. 

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more per- 
fect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide 
for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain 
and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." 
Whether the full conception of the organic unity that gave the 
nation a right to a separate existence was then even more than 
suspected by these statesmen, may, without doing injustice to their 



•Mulford. The Nation, 152. 



of Our National Existence. 9 

heads or hearts, be readily doubted. The full recognition of great 
truths is a slow process. 

In fact two tendencies speedily appeared, antagonistic to each 
other — either of which would put an end to national life were it to 
obtain supremacy. The one, centrifugal in character, delighted in 
empty declamations on states-rights ; the other, centripetal in na- 
ture, descanted on the necessity of a strong government. The 
former never appreciated the meaning of the declaration in the pre- 
amble to the constitution, never rose to a clear conception of the 
idea of the nation as an organism, and looked upon nationality as a 
convenient term to indicate confederation : the latter failed to appre- 
ciate the fact that the parts of an organic whole have separate and 
distinct functions, and that their vitality may be displayed in differ- 
ent ways, subject only to a general coordination and regulation. 
The former would have had constant self-assertion among the 
States, in order to establish the fact of their independence of each 
other: the latter would have destroyed the states, in order to gain 
an all-powerful centralization. The former naturally tended towards 
disintegration, the latter towards autocratic power, or what has 
been called " Ctesarism." 

These tendencies have manifested themselves all through our 
history down to the present day ; the strength of the national life 
has been shown in its intolerance of either, and the resolute deter- 
mination it has manifested to suppress their predominance. When 
a party in power has shown a tendency to disregard the rights of 
States, the free spirit of the people has sternly rebuked it ; when a 
gigantic rebellion was organized to overthrow the federal power and 
to establish individual state-supremacy, the people, by force of arms, 
put it down. Thus learning that Scylla presents dangers as perilous 
to the ship of state as those known to exist in Charybdis, true states- 
men have labored to guard against both, and to steer along a 
middle course, as that freest from danger. The national life has 
been recognized as most prosperous when manifested in accordance 
with its own norm— when the functions of the federal government 
have been allowed their ligitimate play, and those of the States such 
exercise as may insure their individual rights. The brain must not 
assume the functions of the heart or stomach, much less those 
peculiar to the limbs, if the animal organism is to be true to the idea 
underlying it. And similarly, the relative functions of the federal 



10 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

and state governments must be performed normally, in that com- 
plete harmony which, history has shown, aff.jrds the most satisfac- 
tory exhibition of the true end and design of our national life. 

As a special proof of the peculiarity of the life that pervades 
the nation, may be mentioned the rapidity with which the most 
dissimilar elements are made to harmonize when brought together 
under our flag, and to take on the form previously assumed by those 
who inherit American citizenship. Drawn to our shores by a variety 
of reasons, there are representatives of almost all the nations of the 
globe, disciples of all the religions cultivated by mankind. The 
assimilating power of the national vitality speedily shows itself in 
the incorporation of these into full citizenship. With some there is 
a sturdy struggle for the retention of their mother-tongue, for the 
manners and usage of the nations whose citizenship they have re- 
nounced, for the introduction of regulations and customs peculiar to 
other lands ; but the result is always, sooner or later, a submer- 
gence of all these and the adoption of that which belongs to Ameri- 
can life. The German, the Frenchman, the Northman, the English, 
the Irish, the Scotch, lay aside their peculiarities, become Ameri- 
canized, and speedily manifest the national life into which they 
have become incorporated. We are an English-speaking people, 
but no true student can speak of us as in any sense showing forth 
the life that is peculiar to England. It is as foreign to us as that 
which prevails in France, Germany, or any other nation that has 
contributed to swell the tide of emigration which yearly pours in 
upon us from foreign shores. Our naturalized citizens speedily 
become as jealous of our honor as those "to the manner born." 
They rally to the defence of our flag when dangers within or with- 
out threaten its safety. They enter into the commercial and me- 
chanical pursuits of our people, are found in the ranks of our 
professions and in the public offices of our country. And all this 
not as adventurers, but as citizens, who having sought incorpora- 
tion, have become vitalized with the national life ; grafted into the 
sturdy stalk, its life has permeated and made them parts — integral 
parts — of itself. 

And this lesson has also diminished the fear that was once felt 
lest an influx of foreigners might be so great as to overpower and 
overthrow the form of government we have inherited. The power 
of remaining foreigners is really denied those who come here to 



of Our Natio7ial Existence. 11 

assauie citizenship, by the national life thej^ enter into. Thej 
cease speedily not only to be foreigners in name, but also in tbought, 
habit and custom ; and hence they add to the homogeneity of the 
nation. And such must be the case so long as the people of this 
nation remain faithful to the life which God has given it; so long 
as they honestly, earnestly and patriotically strive to keep the nation 
true to its real mission. 

2. The integrit]! of the nation being essential to the full play of 
all its parts, it is incumbent upon its citizens to contend for its pre- 
servation even at jjeril of life and limb. What is meant by pat- 
riotism but that the citizen should entertain a love for the patria, 
akin to that which beats in the dutiful child's heart for his pater, 
his parents in the flesh? Lieber says that it designates "that 
sacred enthusiasm which prompts to great exertions, and has the 
welfare, honor, and reputation of the country at large in view," 
and is founded upon " that indestructible sympathy and attach- 
ment which every uncorrupted heart feels toward its own country." 
There is a pseudo philanthropy which demands credit for itself 
because it ignores any special claims of family and country, and 
professes to be alone interested in that which concerns men as men. 
It asserts a catholicity of sympathy that struggles against any metes 
or bounds to its active labors. But when it is closely scrutinized, 
and the practical results of its asserted liberality carefully examined, 
we shall find it is nothing but shallow pretense — a miserable fraud. 
As well might we expect to find true parenial aflfection in one 
whose time was spent in visiting her neighbors' houses and in in- 
vestigating their needs and wants, while thriftlessness and misery 
reigned at home — whose lachrymal glands were always surcharged 
with tears for foreign want, while domestic suffering failed to elicit 
an act of kindness or a word of sympathy ; as well might we ex- 
pect to see the full development of Christian activity in one whose 
time was passed in visiting sister churches and boasting of the 
catholicity of his faith, while the claims of his own church upon 
his time andenergies were ignored — whose life was frittered away 
in examining and eulogizing the prosperity of the fields of labor 
assigned to others, while those where his own duties called him to 
active work were totally neglected. Fidelity to family and to 
church require us first to be true to the duties there imposed upon 
QS, not only before we endeavor to extend our sympathies, but in 



12 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

order that we may do so with proper success. And similarily does 
patriotism require us to labor for our own country, whether ours 
by virtue of nationality or choice, in order that we may fit ourselves 
for the wider and broader demands of a true philanthropy, which is 
as different from the bogus article as the pure metal is from the 
counterfeit which is only a miserable imitation. 

But as filial duty to cherish and protect the parent is intensified 
where the life of the latter absolutely depends upon its performance, 
so the citizen's duty to strive for a healthy, vigorous national life 
is heightened when the very existence of the nation is dependent 
upon the possession of such vitality. Here then patriotism can at 
all times find a field for the due exercise of all its faculties. Its 
proper field is not that of pride or vain-glory, where depreciation 
of other lands and other governments is associated with undue 
exaltation of the nation. Indeed true patriotism has nothing in 
common with hatred of other lands, any more than, to use another's 
words, "a man who feels deeply attached to one woman among so 
many thousand thereby declares that he holds her to be better, 
wiser, purer than all the rest." True, the exaggerated phraseology 
of sentinientalism, which is at best but a poor imitation of love, 
admits of superlative language when the beloved is the subject, 
and may indulge in meaningless rant ; but that love which is 
strongest and most enduring proceeds from positive sympathy for 
one, irrespective of all comparison of her peculiar characteristics 
with those of the rest of her sex. It finds its pleasure and its duty 
combined in its love, and is elevated by this feeling above the 
passion of indifference or hate towards the others. In fact, one 
cannot love any one object worthy of real love without, by that 
very fact, being made capable of appreciating whatever is lovable 
in the world around. True patriotism thus has no connection 
properly with a spirit of disparagement, but may indeed enable us 
"to value other countries higher in the abstract." And yet to our 
own nation we are bound by the sweetest tie of affection ; for her 
our earnest efforts must be directed to keep her in that path which 
will make her honored among the nations of the earth, and when 
need arises to leave even home and kindred, and to peril life and 
limb for her. Because there can be no home unless it is under the 
aegis of national protection, there can be no security for kindred 
unless it be afforded by law. There can be no protecting vine and 



of Our National Existence. 13 

fig-tree unless these grow up under the nurturing and fostering care 
of a wise, paternal government. 

Nor is this idea an outgrowth of modern civilization, or a result 
simply of the teachings of Christianity. It is an instinct of the 
human heart which has been illustrated in a thousand different 
ways since the beginning of history. It was a heathen poet who 
sung 

" Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," 

and yet the sentiment finds an emphatic response in every human 
breast. But when this natural instinct is associated with a justifi- 
able pride in the proper performance of the peculiar mission 
entrusted to a country, — where the reason finds that the instinct is 
not blind in its attachment to an unworthy object, but gives it 
approval, then the arm is nerved and the courage intensified in 
the citizens who are called forth to its defense. 

Have we not but recently illustrated the sentiment of the Ameri- 
can people on this subject? When the integrity of the nation was 
attacked, and arms were employed to ensure its disruption — when 
the cry for help showed how great the need was for assistance — 
when the demand went forth that troops should be raised to pre- 
vent the success of rebellion — what was the effect upon the 
peace-loving citizens of the land ? Did the farmer, the mechanic, 
the laborer, the inventor, the man of science, the student in his 
library, the physician at the bedside, the lawyer at the bar, even 
the clergyman in the pulpit, reply "the call is not for me; I have 
not been trained to arms ; my tastes, pursuits and education have 
made me a lover of peace, and given me no fitness for war ?" No ! 
but on the contrary, from the length and breadth of the loyal 
States was there heard an earnest entreaty from patriotic lips that 
they might be allowed to contend for the preservation of the Union. 
And so a busy, money-making people were metamorphosed into an 
army, undergoing the drilling and instruction that all apprentices 
must undergo before they become masters of a novel pursuit. 
Through disaster and defeat, through the blunders of ignorance and 
want of experience, they toiled on, until at length came success and 
victory. They had shown how free men could fight for a nation's 
flag. 

Should occasion ever require a similar relinquishment of the arts 
of peace for the toils and perils of war, we have the right to expect 



14 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

that an equal alacrity will be shown by the American people — that 
the same patriotic spirit will nerve their hearts and strengthen their 
arms, as they form regiments, brigades and divisions in defence of 
the national flag. God grant that it may never again require, how- 
ever, brothers to stand in arms against brothers, or that the people 
of this favored land be found on the battle field, except as soldiers 
under one flag, and that the flag of the Union, " one and indivis- 
ible!" 

3. In order that every citizen should be fitted for the official 
positions to which he is theoretically eligible, it is essentially 
necessary that the advantage of mental education should be within 
his reach. The rights and privileges of citizenship in the posses- 
sion of an ignorant man are as likely to be used to his own detri- 
ment or that of his associates as a razor in the hands of an infant. No* 
prudent man would grant permission to a child to play with a loaded 
revolver ; nor think it advisable to employ one to plan a house for 
him, who knew nothing of architecture ; or to contract for any 
needed work save with those who were presumptively acquainted 
with such work. Trained or educated labor is demanded by the 
practical business man, and hence he invariably has recourse to 
those who have acquired skill by practice either alone or under 
approved masters. And as there is no pursuit, affording adequate 
reward to its followers, which is confined to a few, there is always 
room for some kind of selection among the experts. The fitness 
of the expert is a necessary requisite — should be the all-controlling 
one — to be determined before the choice is made. Where each 
citizen is eligible to any office, it becomes important that no one 
should be left in ignorance. All must be acquainted with the rudi- 
ments of knowledge, as all are liable to be called forth from the 
walks of private life and assigned to public duties. All should be 
furnished with abundant facilities for acquiring an education that 
would give them fitness for such duties when thus imposed upon 
them. 

An autocracy or a monarchy maybe indifferent to the education 
of its subjects, and may interest itself solely with the mental culti- 
vation of the members of the aristocracy or the royal famil}'-, with 
possibly some few others who may be necessary to the superinten- 
dence of the wheels of government. Indeed, from a selfish stand 
point, they might consider education of the masses as dangerous to 



of Our National Existence. 15 

their own security ; just as the laws of sonie of the slave states pro- 
hibited instruction in reading to their slaves, for fear the latter 
might thereby learn something of their natural rights and of the 
sympathy which their wrongs had excited in the world — all of 
which would translate them from a state of happy, stupid ignorance, 
to a condition of unhappy, restless, ambitious longing to better 
themselves and to attain to a higher and nobler manhood. The 
reasoning employed to defend inattention to mental cultivation is 
as simple as it is unsound. It runs somewhat after this order : So 
long as the people are supplied with what may be needed in the 
way of food and clothing, so long as comfortable habitations are 
furnished, so long as they are kept glehse adscriptus, their 
thoughts directed only to the natural wants of the body, they will 
obey the orders of their rulers without question or cavil, and will 
lead quiet, orderly, happy (!) lives. But all this is based upon the 
idea that "ignorance is bliss," which being admitted, it follows as 
a necessary consequence that " 'tis folly to be wise." Then again, 
there is something calculated to charm the superficial thinker in 
the picture of patriarchal simplicity, where the ruler occupies the 
parental position to the ruled, issuing his orders to his subjects 
with the confident assurance that they will be implicitly ol)eyed, 
taking upon himself the care of all their wants and needs, provid- 
ing for them in sickness and health, and giving them no object in 
life higher than that of securing his approbation and good will. 
But such a picture is a caricature of happiness. It is simply an 
exhibit of that which belongs to the infantile stage of human life, 
and ignores the right of individual thought and individual progress 
and advancement. An absolute monarchy, or an absolute auto- 
cracy, or even the prevalence of slavery, is impossible where educa- 
tion has given a taste of the freedom and equality which is every 
human being's natural and indefeasible right. They are detri- 
mental to that progress and development in knowledge which 
should be open and free to all. They bind to the earth him who 
was made in the image of his creator, they restrict to the sphere of 
animal life and the narrow wants of the perishable body souls 
destined to survive long after all that is earthly shall disappear. 
Hence, irrespective of the form of government of a country, the 
citizens as human beings are entitled to every educational advan- 
tao-e that may enable them to rise above the sphere of the animal 



16 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

and sensual, to learn the nature and uses of the forms of creation 
that were placed here in subjection to them, the characteristic 
properties of the forces of nature, the mysteries of the laws of 
thought and the wonderful facilities for expressing the same 
possessed by language. Only when the blessings of an education 
are ensured to a people, will they be enabled to make that progress 
in the useful or ornamental arts which will place them abreast 
of the column of humanity in its grand march over the broad plains 
of history. 

But what is important to each individual, separately considered, 
in order that he may secure the best possible progress in the arena 
of life, becomes of national importance when there is no let or 
hindrance to his securing any position of authority which the suf- 
frages of his fellow-citizens may indicate. Ignorance here is more 
than a personal evil ; it is a public misfortune, as well as a public 
disgrace. No republic could survive if its office holders were 
selected only from the ranks of the ignorant and debased. Its 
lawmakers, its judges and executive officers, need that preliminary 
education which will make them able to command the stores of 
written knowledge, to understand the actual resources and present 
condition of the country, to appreciate such measures as will insure 
its progressive advance among other nations and to sustain in 
every possible way its honor and dignity. They should be selected 
on account of peculiar fitness for the stations they are intended to 
fill, and no man should be deprived of the opportunity of securing 
the intellectual training which will contribute to this fitness. 

In full recognition of this lesson, the education of the masses 
has been a subject of intense interest to our nation during the last 
half century. While the number of higher institutions of learning 
has largely increased, and it has been a keen source of pleasure to 
men of wealth to pour out of their abundance into the treasuries 
of academies, colleges, and Universities, in still greater measure 
has the number of our common schools increased, until all over the 
States that are most prominent for their energy,' enterprise, intel- 
ligence and wealth, school-houses have been planted, offering ele- 
mentary instruction gratuitously to the children of the poor and 
lowly as well as to to those of their richer and more favored neigh- 
bors. From these go forth every year those who are to control the 
future destinies of our land, and to protect the American name 



of Our National Existence. 17 

from soil or disgrace. jSTo amount of expenditure or care to make 
such schools sources of sound and useful knowledge can be con- 
sidered too great. It is a wise, permanent investment, that must 
bring the most satisfactory results. The common school has 
already been the fountain whence some of our most distinguished 
statesmen have received the intellectual training that has fitted 
them to take commanding positions in the nation, and the Ameri- 
can people are not likely to neglect in the future that which has 
given such satisfactory results in the past. 

4. To prevent mere mental development from being used to exe- 
cute wickedness, and that which will bring shame and ruin upon 
the nation, full and free opportunity must be granted, under the 
protection of law, to the ministers of religion to carry out their 
work of evangelization and moral instruction among the people. 
Mere mental culture, apart from high moral tone, will not neces- 
sarily result in honorable patriotic efforts, nor will it insure honesty 
and integrity. The cultivated scoundrel differs from the class to 
which he belongs only in his capacity to execute more successfully 
his villainous plans. All that mere mental culture can do for him 
is to increase his power of doing wrong in the community, to give 
an exquisite edge to the blade which he wields on the right and the 
left in pressing forward in his career of dishonesty and crime, to 
intensify the poison he naturally possesses so as to make it more 
fatal to his victims. " Whited sepulchres may attract the eye by 
their beautiful external appearance, possibly may not offend the 
nose if at a suitable distance, and yet they may be full of dead men's 
bones and of all uncleanness." Similarly, the culture which has 
been wholly intellectual may command admiration for its extent 
and thoroughness, may charm the ear by its eloquent diction, and 
captivate the soul by the sublimity of its utterances, and yet be 
conjoined with a heart full of moral filth and corruption, — may in- 
deed prove a very focus of contagion to a nation. Hence no culture 
can be considered desirable which loses sight of the moral nature of 
man. The true and the beautiful can have no abiding home unless 
when associated with the good. 

But morality is unattainable unless in connection with religion, 
which is its groundwork and basis. And religioji necessarily im- 
plies a recognition of some power outside of and above the sphere 
of humanity, from whence its precepts proceed and whose approval 



18 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

or disapproval must be looked for in every human act. Hence the 
nation cannot be indifferent to religion. Says Lieber on this 
point,* "If we comprehend within this term all belief, true or er- 
roneous, in an agent or agents overruling the actions and destinies 
of men, possessed of a power surpassing human power, which 
extends to the changes in the physical world, we shall find that 
men have never existed without some religion, whether it be in the 
form of the grossest fetish religion, adoring beings which do not 
even represent real or imagined animate beings, or polytheism, or 
monotheism. The consciousness of our dependence and of the great 
limitations of our power, fear or hope, desire of superior aid, or a 
longing for support and comfort in adversity, which every man feels 
that he himself or his fellow man are incapable of affording, has 
invariably led men to acknowledge a superior agency of some sort 
or other. Man has always adored. If, therefore, there were no 
other reason why we should promote pure religion — and there are 
many indeed — this would be a strong one, that man will not and 
cannot live without some religion, of whatever character ; and if he 
has not a true one he will embrace a false one ; if he has not belief 
or true faith he will resort to superstition, or rather his heart will 
naturally engender it. But if a religion acknowledges a God " who 
is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," who is love and all-pure, 
it needs no farther discussion to show how deeply the whole society 
is interested in maintaining the diffusion of such a faith, which af- 
fords the two most powerful agents of morality ; namely, on the 
one hand, mental communion with a being who is purity himself, 
and, being omniscient, does not judge by signs or outward actions, 
but searches the motives in the deepest recesses of our hearts, and 
who, being almighty, affords support to all who seek it in purity 
from him ; and on the other hand, the belief in the immortality of 
the soul. It extends at once the whole sphere of action ; its effects 
and tests^go beyond the mere calculation of expediency, and thus 
the belief must needs become the most powerful primitive impulse 
to good actions, uprightness, disinterestedness, kindness, love of 
truth, and admiration of what is truly good, beautiful, noble and 
great." 



*Liober's Political EtMcs, II., 67. 



of Our National Existence. 19 

Still the cultivation of religion pure and undefiled is not the 
province of the nation per se. It belongs to the Church — another 
divine institution, possessed of peculiar powers through its great 
Head, which are manifested in the entire renovation of sinful na- 
ture and the impartation of a spiritual life to the penitent human 
being. But the Church is not dependent upon the State, although 
the latter owes its most perfect and successful development to the 
purity of life, which the influence of the former bestows upon its 
faithful n^embers. Hence it is necessary that the Church should 
be protected by the State in all its legitimate efforts to extend the 
influence of the truths entrusted to it for the good of mankind ; 
that it should be allowed free scope in the work of evangelization 
and moral instruction among the people, because the best kind of 
citizens are those who are sincere followers of Christ. 

The protection furnished by the State must not be in the form 
of subsidy or pecuniary support, which would place the Church in 
a dependent position, but rather by prohibiting every thing that 
would interfere with the due exercise of its functions. Thus it is 
right that there should be Sunday laws, so that those who wish to 
keep the day in accordance with their interpretation of the divine 
command may not be subjected to interruption by the noise of busi- 
ness or pleasure. It is right that severe penalties should be im- 
posed for disturbance of divine worship, that the clergy should be 
exempted from certain civil duties which might interfere seri- 
ously with the due performance of their professional functions, that 
the church in some form be recognized as the guardian of morality. 
This can be done without discriminating between the different 
denominations that claim to be alike sharers of her high preroga- 
tives and privileges. 

Where the question arises in regard to religions that are not 
Christians, and the followers of some of these are to be found in 
our country — " How far can the government render them protec- 
tion ?'' the answer must be : only so far as their services are not 
disturbances of public order, and their teachings not subversive of 
morality and good citizenship. The Christian Church, if true to 
the teachings of her Master, cannot ask that law be used to sup- 
press other forms of religion, but must rejoice at the opportunity 
of bearing the truth to the followers of such, in full confidence that 



20 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

the seed thus planted will yield a rich reward for their labor. The 
fanatics and hyper-pietists, who wished to drive the Chinese from 
our shores for fear that they would paganize an essentially Chris- 
tian land, only showed by their conduct how weak was their faith 
in the power and vitality of the Christian religion. Far different 
was the spirit of those who hailed the influx of the Chinese as 
affording them an opportunity for earnest evangelical labor under 
the protecting gegis of a government that has learned not to des- 
pise the religion upon which its founders relied for strength, and 
whose teachings can only result in creating the highest type of 
citizenship. 

These are some of the lessons learned by the American people 
during the first century of national existence. They do not contain 
any novelties, but are simple rehabilitations of truths that have 
always existed. Truth is never new save to him who meets with 
it for the first time, when it has the charm of novelty. It may be 
hidden from observation for years or centuries, but such conceal- 
ment does not tend to its decay. Ever fresh and living to him who 
finds it, he will never go astray who follows its guidance ; but great 
will be the condemnation of him to whom the light of truth is re- 
vealed in vain. To sin against light and to plunge into deliberate 
blindness will bring its own terrible punishment. In proportion 
as we profit by the lessons taught us in the past shall we advance 
to the forefront of the nations of the earth, not only in strength 
and wealth, but also in those higher characteristics which give 
durability to a national name and fame. We must never lose sight 
of these lessons, for if a nation becomes oblivious of its divine 
mission, of the imperative demands of patriotism on its citizens, 
of the need of intellectual culture to raise it above the plane of the 
animal, and of the importance of that moral and religious train- 
ing which recognizes this life as but a preparation for another of 
eternal duration, then its downfall and utter ruin will be a mere 
matter of time. It will speedily become a prey to the spoiler from 
without, or to inevitable destruction from dissensions and divisions 
at home. Continual vigilance is essential to the durability of any 
nation, and abiding attachment to truth is sure passport to a green 
old age. 

It is proper, however, before dismissing the subject, to glance 



of Our National Existence. 21 

briefly, for time will admit only of a brief retrospect, at some 
peculiar results or successes attained by the nation during its first 
hundred years, not for the purpose of vain glory, but to show that 
imperfectly as we have learned the lessons already mentioned, still 
they have borne rich and abundant fruit. Progress of an unex- 
ampled character has marked our history. While we would avoid 
the excessive laudations of American optimists, it cannot be wrong 
to shun the dispiriting jeremiads of the disciples of the pessimist 
school, and to glance at the actual results of our history. 

1. Population.^ At the breaking out of the revolutionary war 
it is estimated that there were 2,083,000 (including 500,000 slaves,) 
men, women and children living in the thirteen colonies. How 
many of these were natives and how many of foreign birth it is 
impossible to state, nor is there any certainty as to the correctness 
of the number, since it is the result of conjecture and not of an 
actual census-enumeration. When the first census, however, was 
taken in 1190 the number is given as 3,929,214, which presents a 
strong contrast to the grand total 38,558,311 as furnished by the 
census of 1870. Assuming that the increase from 1810 to the 
present has been at the same rate as between 1860 and 1810, we 
may reckon the present population of the United States as 
nearly 42,000,000, in other words nearly twenty-one times more 
than when the oppressive measures of the English government 
drove the people into rebellion. Then thirteen colonies along the 
Atlantic coast constituted the nucleus. They were thinly settled 
and poorly provided with means of inter-state intercourse. Now 
there are thirty-eight States stretching across the broad continent, 
one of which is almost an empire itself on the shores of the Pacific, 
with a population drawn from all quarters of the globe, developing 
signs of the national spirit and enterprise wherever a settlement is 
made, and building up populous towns and cities in an almost in- 
credibly short space of time. That which was formerly our ex- 
treme west has become the east to the Chinese, Japanese and 
other oriental nations. 

The singular rapidity with which the foreign element becomes 
Americanized is as startling as the numbers in which it appears. 
For a while some of them may contend for their national rites and 
customs, may pride themselves upon their foreign origin, but they 



22 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

sooner or later succumb to the prevailing spirit and esteem it a 
high privilege to be American citizens. Their children claim to be 
Americans bj birth and care not to push their genealogies beyond 
the country which they find so congenial to prosperity and enter- 
prise. Even the peculiar physical characteristics belonging to the 
countries whence the fathers came, are gradually disappearing and 
giving place to a type peculiar alone to the United States, so that 
with a singular conglomeration of surnames indicating cosmo- 
politan origin, our population generally presents uniform physical 
and mental peculiarities. 

2. Valuation of Property. — Here the data are very inadequate 
to a comparative statement of what has been done in the century, 
but we can compare the valuation of the property of the country, 
exclusive of that belonging to the general government, as presented 
by the census of 1870, with that of 1850. The latter was stated to 
be $7,135,780,228, and the former $30,068,518,507; in other words, 
the wealth of the country, in the twenty years intervening between 
the two census, was increased more than four-fold. This includes 
landed estate, public works, manufactures, and personal estate of 
every kind whatever. True, there is a dark side to this state- 
ment, which shows a huge national debt and great indebtedness on 
the part of most of the States, but the elasticity of the country 
bears loads of this kind with great equanimity, buoyed up with 
the confident assurance that its present and future resources will 
ensure certain liquidation. 

Along with this increase of wealth, which is probably more 
generally distributed than in any other country on the globe, there 
is to be found a large increase of the comforts and luxuries of civ- 
ilization, some of which penetrate the humblest cottages of the 
land. Foreign countries are made to contribute to the daily needs 
of the American citizen, and the oceans are whitened with sails 
bearing such contributions to our busy ports and then carrying off 
with them our own productions in exchange. Indeed, what would 
have been a rare luxury to the wealthy one century ago is now 
simply a necessity to the humble citizen. Its price brings it within 
the reach of his income, and his tastes lead him to require that 
which his income will secure. And this is not only true in regard 
to material wants, food, clothing and shelter, but also to those 



of Oar National Existence. 23 

aesthetic wants which cultivated tastes create. "Works of art are 
in demand, sculpture and painting are liberally encouraged, archi- 
tecture is invited to unite the beautiful with the useful in public and 
private edifices, music finds votaries quite as enthusiastic as in the 
old world, and for all these branches of the fine arts money is ex- 
pended with a very lavish hand. True, the taste which induces 
the expenditure is not always such as will stand fair criticism ; our 
galleries of paintings contain but little of the rare results of exalted 
talent as compared with the acres of canvass covered with mere 
daubs ; our statuary, notwithstanding some brilliant examples of 
native and foreign genius, contains hosts of figures like those ex- 
hibited in the horrible collection in the Capital for which the na- 
tional treasury has been heavily mulcted ; our music is not always 
of the classic schools of Beethoven, Mozart or Handel, or even that 
conjured up by the weird genius of Richard Wagner, and our 
architecture only at rare intervals gives us a Girard College, while 
it mostly delights in the perpetration of costly enormities, embody- 
ing nothing but the idea of senseless expenditure. Still it is a 
gratifying circumstance that wealth has aspirations after that which 
is beautiful, and it bids us hope that in time, as cultivation ad- 
vances, we shall rise from our present contentment with that which 
is mere pretense, to a higher, purer and more perfect art. 

3. Intellectual Progress. — This may be shown in various ways, 
and notably by the number of institutions, public and private, 
devoted to educational purposes, from those where rudimentary 
instruction is given to those devoted to technical, professional and 
higher culture generally. The number of such institutions in 1870 
was 141,G29, with 221,042 teachers, and 1,209,938 pupils, at an 
expense of 95,402, T2G dollars. These figures most eloquently set 
forth the appreciation of education in the land. They show how 
wide-spread must be the feeling that, without its aid, the people 
would be unfitted to solve the great problem of the national des- 
tiny. And this is still more satisfactorily shown by the great de- 
mand for intellectual pabulum, whether of a high or lOw degree. 
There were in the year mentioned 3,811 newspapers published in 
the United States, with a total of 1,508,548,250 copies annually 
issued, and an aggregate of 164,815 libraries, public and private, 
containing 45,528,938 volumes. The newspaper or the printed 



24 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

volume is the source to which nearly every adult resorts for infor- 
mation, and these statistics show how large a number of readers 
there must be to justify such an enormous supply. 

The intellectual progress of the nation is also shown, and in a 
way that gives her a high position, by the number of her authors 
who are acknowledged as of pre-eminent worth by the literary 
world. Prior to 1775 we find John Eliot published his Indian 
version of the Bible — now a rare curiosity to the biblomaniac — 
Cotton Mather his Magnalia Christi Americani, Jonathan Ed- 
wards his treatise on " The Freedom of the Will," Franklin his 
essays and scientific papers, which with a few books of scientific 
travels and historical contributions, are still referred to as of classic 
value. From 1775 to 1820 the political writings of Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, Hamilton, John Adams, Ames and Patrick 
Henry ; the scientific productions of Rittenhouse, Rush, Barton, 
Wilson and others ; the poetical effusions of Barlow, Trumbull and 
Hopkinson ; the works of fiction of Brown, Brackenbridge, — repre- 
sent strength of thought, careful research, and imaginative powers, 
although Sydney Smith at the close of this period asked the ques- 
tion "Who reads an American book?" as though there was no 
literature here worthy of notice. Then commenced a period in 
our literary history full of remarkable contributions in all the de- 
partments of intellectual labor, which have won a proud place in 
the libraries of the world. Bancroft, Schoolcraft, Prescott and 
Motley have taken their place among the historians ; Irving, 
Cooper, Paulding, Poe and Hawthorne among the writers of fic- 
tion ; Bryant, Longfellow, Halleck, Whittier, Lowell and Holmes 
among the poets ; Audubon, Agassiz, Dana, Hare, Henry and 
Silliman among the scientists, and a host of others whose names 
would require hours to enumerate, have made contributions in 
every department of literature and science, which fully demon- 
strate the great talent of their authors and the high character of 
the literature of the nation. In the last half century America has 
left no niche in the temple of knowledge unstudied by her sons, 
and has made valuable contributions to them all. 

4. Scientific Progress. — In science the nation has been no lag- 
gard. Since the time when Franklin fulmen e ccelo, sceptrumque 
tyrannis eripuit, it has always had citizens who have diligently 



of Our National Existerice. 25 

delved in this field. Franklin's researches into the mysteries of 
electricity but paved the way for those of Henry and Morse, vs'hose 
discoveries culminated in the invention of the telegraph, and then 
the daring of an American pressed its application until the sub- 
marine cable was devised and successfully laid. And what an 
impulse to commerce, manufactures, and all the peaceful arts has 
not the telegraph given ! There is something almost awe-inspiring 
in the thought that the slender wires that hang mid-air over land 
through populous countries, over desert plains and barren moun- 
tains, as well as in the depths of old ocean, are the highways 
along which are constantly passing messages of business and love, 
announcements of birth or death, of triumph or defeat, of peace or 
war. It is a thousand times more wonderful than the stories of 
the Arabian Nights or the lying pretensions of mediaeval magi- 
cians. 

Again, take the art of Heliography or sun-painting ; although the 
first germ was not the discovery of an American, yet the honor of 
first taking the picture of a living man belongs to Draper of New 
York — a naturalized citizen. What has. it not done towards the 
operpetuation of the loved and the beautiful ! Have not discoveries 
rapidly followed each other in this art until its cultivators, with a 
bold venture, have even succeeded in catching the changing phases 
of a solar eclipse or a transit of Venus, and given them an enduring 
permanence never dreamed of in the wildest dreams of the craziest 
visionary ? We have ceased to marvel at its triumphs, and only 
regret that mankind had not been blessed with its power centuries 
ago, so that we might now look upon the wonderful presentments 
of the countenances of those men of olden time, whose characters 
we have learned to love, reverence or adore. 

And in the department of natural history our activity has been 
no less marked. Under the vigorous industry, earnest enthusiasm 
and wonderful genius of the naturalized Swiss Professor Agassiz — 
clarum et venerabile nomen — who relinquished European honors 
of the most attractive kind to labor and toil among the savans of 
'our own land, not only has the Cambridge Museum, to which his 
energies were principally directed, risen to a magnitude and impor- 
tance which makes it attractive to naturalists all over the world, 
but numerous others have sprung into existence, each bearing 



26 Some Lessons Learned in the First Century 

some important contribution to the knowledge of mankind. We 
have learned, monej-making people as we are, to recognize science 
as worthy of our best brains and our severest labor. 

To the question "Who reads an American book?" now will the 
reply come from every student's laboratory all over the world, 
"Without a knowledge of what the savans of the new world have 
done, one is but poorly acquainted with any field of investigation 
and study." They have gained a reputation among mankind 
which shames the silly nobility whose only claim to recognition is 
based upon what its ignorant forefathers with rude muscular force 
inflicted on their weaker brethren, and whose childish pride is 
content with a display of coats of arms emblazoned with tawdry 
decorations. They are enumerated among the benefactors of the 
race, whose glory consists in enlarging the field of investigation and 
increasing the knowledge of mankind. 

5. Progress in Mechanic Arts. — The practical bent of the Amer- 
ican mind finds every employment in the invention of improved forms 
of machinery, and the immense collection of models which fill the 
cases of the national Patent-Office furnishes abundant proof of 
great success. By improved machinery new occupations have 
been introduced and old ones have been caused to disappear. It 
would be impossible to mention even the most important of these, 
without taxing the patience of my audience beyond ordinary 
endurance. A glance at a few may serve to show how much 
American skill has done for the world in this department. 

Formerly our grain was cut either with the sickle or cradle, and 
to gather in a moderate harvest, without large assistance from 
those engaged in the mechanical arts of our towns and villages, 
would have been almost impossible. Other occupations were 
thrown aside, and the harvest field was made to resound with the 
noise of busy crowds of men toiling and sweating over the heavy 
grain. Now by the aid of mechanical contrivances the work is 
done with comparatively little human assistance, and there Is no 
hindrance to the business of the mechanic ; while the farmer more 
speedily and surely gathers in the rich crops which nature returns 
for the labor he has expended upon the soil. The mower and 
reaper, moreover, enables larger crops to be cultivated and more 
food to be raised for home-population or exportation. It has 



of Our National Existence. 27 

diminished the necessity for human labor in one department, 
increased the material wealth of the country, and made it able to 
feed a larger number of citizens. 

Again, the contrivances used for spinning, weaving and finish- 
ing cotton goods are mainly of American invention, resulting in 
increasing the quantity of the manufactured article yearly brought 
into market, diminishing its cost per yard, and giving employ- 
ment to thousands of men, women and children who would other- 
wise be obliged to eke out a miserable existence, full of struggles 
with misery and starvation. 

The printing press has been also made to receive the impress of 
American ingenuity. Instead of the slow movement of the old hand 
press, steam has been brought into requisition, and immense edi- 
tions of our huge city daily newspapers are prepared in a few 
hours to meet the demand of a public greedy for the latest news 
— a demand which could not have been supplied at all by the 
hand-press of the older time. 

The sewing machine, now an indispensable piece of furniture in 
every household, has lightened labor greatly, and diminished the 
drudgery to which the slave of the needle was doomed before its 
introduction. And not only has it made the plain sewing of the 
family an easy task, but it has opened a way for decorative work 
which develops the artistic taste and aesthetic faculties to an ex- 
tent altogether impossible in former times. And it, with all its 
manifold improvements, is purely and absolutely the result of Amer- 
can skill and American labor. 

With one more illustration I shall close. Not many years ago 
the American would have readily admitted that he could never 
compete with the foreign mechanic in the construction of accurate 
time pieces, because it was believed that they must be made by 
hand to be of suitable delicacy, and the cost of labor in foreign 
countries was very much below that which was claimed to be its 
due in this country. Still, even here, American talent, combined 
with patience and perseverance, has gained a great triumph. It 
has devised machinery which finishes with the greatest possible 
accuracy all the intricate parts af the most delicate time-pieces, 
and its watches are now recognized as the best made in the world. 

Such are some of the striking results attained by the United 



28 Some Lessons Learned in Our First Century. 

States during the first huadred years of its existence, — attained 
while learning the lessons which its history so earnestly and im- 
pressively set before its citizens. It is proposed to signalize its 
Jubilee by making a public exhibition of the productions of its soil, 
the results of its ingenuity and mechanic talent, and of everything 
that will tend to show what nature has furnished and human skill 
has produced. In such an exhibition, North and South can hon- 
estly strike hands, not over a silly rhetorician's "bloody chasm" 
but with fraternal grasp and loyal zeal for the success of the 
nation in the future, as they gaze upon the wondrous results of her 
past success. And where should such an exhibition be held but on 
the spot where the first blast of liberty was blown, the reverbera- 
tions of which have been echoing and reechoing over hill and dale 
for these hundred years ? And as young and old wend their way 
to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, to meet not only this 
grand display from our own country, but magnificent contributions 
from other nations and peoples that have been invited to bring all 
they may have of taste and skill, let their minds ponder the lessons 
learned in the past century, and dedicate themselves anew to the 
duty of preserving the liberties, which are offered to all by our Con- 
stitution, from peril, whether it come from foes within or foes with- 
out. Amid the rejoicing over the triumphs of American art and 
industry, let the memory recur to the old Independence bell, that first 
proclaimed "liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabi- 
tants thereof," and then to the wonderful realization of its pro- 
phetic sound, through the blessing of a merciful Providence; until, 
full of a sense of profound obligation for the past and of absolute 
dependence in the future, the lips shall burst forth in the words of 
the Psalmist — 
Bless the Lord, my soul ; and all that is within me bless His holy 

name. 
Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits. 



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